Royal Banquets, State Occasions - and Other Near Disasters!

An open lecture by Eve Jones on hotelier Ronald F. Jones OBE's career in hospitality, marking the acquisition of his archive by Oxford Brookes.

This open lecture explores the career of Ronald F. Jones OBE, who began as a 14-year-old school leaver at the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool and went on to manage 16 leading UK hotels over 64 years, including Claridge's. His story encompasses royal banquets, state occasions and near disasters in what he called 'The Happiness Business'. The talk marks the acquisition of the Ronald and Eve Jones collection into Oxford Brookes University's Special Collections and Archives, covering hospitality and hotel management material from their careers in consultancy, academia and travel journalism. The speaker is Eve Jones, hospitality industry journalist and author, who met Ronald while writing about great British hoteliers.